Chapter 1

In my previous life, my best friend, Tara Bennett, took my hand, her eyes burning with excitement.

“Stella, if we don’t eat anything for twenty-one days, our bodies will be purified.”

At the time, I thought she’d lost her mind. I shook my head and refused.

Tara flung my hand away, her expression turning cold.

“I’m trying to help you evolve, and this is how you thank me?”

She started pushing her “fasting detox spiritual practice” in our mutual friends’ group chat.

Everyone began looking at me differently.

Even my mom called and asked cautiously, “Stella, is that fasting thing really as amazing as she says?”

Rather than let Tara and our friends treat me like an outsider, I gritted my teeth and joined.

I posted one check-in after another, forcing myself to keep going through the dizzy spells.

A week later, I didn’t even have the strength to stand.

When my mom couldn’t reach me, she brought the property manager and a locksmith to break down my door.

I died of organ failure in that rented apartment.

When I opened my eyes again, I was back on the day she first pitched fasting to me.

Tara was holding her phone in front of me. On the screen, someone was sharing their fasting experience.

“Look! This master says hunger is the universe’s greatest gift to us!”

She looked at me expectantly and took my hand, just as she had in my previous life.

“Stella, let’s do it together this time. In twenty-one days, we’ll be completely new people!”

I stared at her, my heart pounding wildly.

Slowly, I smiled. “Sure.”

My voice sounded calmer than it ever had.

“I’m in.”

Tara froze, then her face lit up with joy.

“That’s amazing! I knew you’d finally awaken! I’ll add you to the group right now!”

Her fingers flew across her screen. A group invitation soon popped up on my phone.

The group was called “Higher Wisdom Connectors: 21-Day Water Fast.”

I tapped Join.

Dozens of messages immediately flooded in, welcoming their “new sister” to the journey of purification. My smile deepened.

Tara, I’ll play along this time.

I’ll play until you lose everything.

I ended the call, yanked open the curtains, and let the sunlight wash over me.

I drew in a deep breath, feeling my lungs expand. In the final moments of my previous life, that was what I’d wanted most.

My stomach was comfortably full from a normal meal. God, it felt good to be alive.

I locked my bedroom door and dragged a box of snacks out from under the bed.

Chips, chocolate, beef jerky, snack cakes. It had everything.

I tore open a bag of chips with a satisfying crackle and closed my eyes in bliss.

I needed a full stomach if I was going to fight this battle.

After eating and drinking my fill, I took out my phone, opened a selfie app, and picked the filter that made me look the most exhausted.

Then I faced the camera and weakly raised a glass of water.

“Day one of my fasting check-in.”

“My body already feels so much lighter. I’m a little dizzy, but I feel peaceful inside. Thank you, Master Tara, for guiding me.”

I posted my carefully performed video in the fasting group.

The chat immediately blew up.

“Wow! Stella, you’re doing so well on your very first day!”

“You must have an amazing spiritual foundation!”

Tara shared my video right away and tagged everyone.

“Look! This is what sudden enlightenment looks like!”

“@Stella has the most potential of anyone here. Follow her example!”

I stared at the screen without expression and stuffed another piece of chocolate into my mouth.

Follow my example?

What, learn how to stuff your face in private while fooling a bunch of idiots?

Tara soon sent me a private message.

“Stella, you’re making me so proud! I knew you weren’t an ordinary person!”

I answered weakly, “It’s all thanks to your guidance.”

“Oh, by the way,” I asked, pretending it had just occurred to me,

“Has anyone in our group completed the fast before? I’d love to read about their experiences.”

Tara immediately sent me a file containing several “success stories.”

She made a point of warning me, “Read them carefully, but don’t contact those people without permission. Some left the group after succeeding. They don’t want worldly distractions.”

I opened the file. One username caught my attention: “AvaLovesCandy.”

Her account felt especially real. She described reaching the tenth day of her fast, feeling her soul float out of her body, and seeing a white light. Those details sounded far too much like what I’d felt while dying in my previous life. It didn’t read like something she’d made up.

I immediately went to the health forum she’d mentioned and searched for her username.

Along with her other posts, there was an old thread from two years earlier buried at the bottom of the results. Its title was a single word: “Regret.”

I clicked it. After describing how her fast had failed, she’d attached a hospital diagnosis with her personal information blurred out.

There wasn’t a single reply. It was like a cry dropped down a deep well.

My pulse quickened. I immediately saved screenshots.

She was probably one of those “successful” members Tara claimed had left because they didn’t want to be disturbed.

Then I began going through the thousands of messages in the group’s chat history.

Every day, Tara posted dozens of “spiritual teachings.”

“Is your heart racing? That’s your heart opening to receive cosmic energy.”

“Is your vision blurring? Your physical eyes are weakening as your inner eye awakens.”

“Feeling nauseated? Want to throw up? Your body is expelling toxins. It’s a wonderful sign!”

Every message had a crowd of believers singing her praises underneath it.

I took screenshots one by one, sorted them, and saved them.

This was hard evidence of her reckless disregard for human life.

By day five, my “performance” entered a new phase.

I covered the color in my lips with concealer and painted dark circles under my eyes. My hands even trembled a little in front of the camera.

“Day five. I feel like I could float away at any moment. The world has become so quiet.”

The praise reached a new peak after I posted the video.

Even Tara said, “Stella, you’ve already entered a demigod state. This is incredible!”

She even suggested, “Let’s pin Stella’s check-in videos, everyone. She should be our spiritual leader!”

I lay in bed eating spicy noodle soup I’d ordered, reading their fanatical praise on my phone.

Their spiritual leader?

Fine by me.

I wanted to see whether their faith would come crashing down when their leader fell.